Berdan wins Run for the Red in front of family, friends

STROUDSBURG — David Berdan doesn't get many opportunities to have his family watch him run.

MIKE KUHNS

STROUDSBURG — David Berdan doesn't get many opportunities to have his family watch him run.

He didn't make them wait long to see him at the finish line Sunday.

Berdan, a 1999 Delaware Valley High School graduate, won the Run for the Red Marathon with a winning time of 2 hours, 22 minutes, 19 seconds to hold off second-place finisher Bryan Morseman (2:26.03), who was is a three-time Run for the Red winner.

It was Berdan's first marathon victory in six tries, and his wife and two kids, his parents, a brother, sister and friends were waiting for him at the finish line.

"(My parents) still live over in Dingmans Ferry so it's nice to come home and win," said Berdan, who lives in Baltimore, Md. "I've been kind of waiting to win that first marathon. I got a second at Steamtown (Scranton) in 2008, but it's exciting to finally get a win."

Kristin Vespa of Ossining, N.Y., was the top female finisher. Vespa, 23, finished in 3:06.41, over a minute better than Conni Grace of Hopewell Jct., N.Y.

Berdan ran with Morseman for the first half of the marathon. They pulled away from third-place finisher Mark Rochon of Downingtown, Liam Collins of West Point, N.Y., and 2012 winner Justin Gillette of Goshen, Ind., who was fifth.

Morseman tried to stick with Berdan for as long as he could, but he didn't have the legs to hang near the front. Last weekend he won a marathon in Delaware, and he's run three in the last four weekends.

The pace was just too much for the three-time Run for the Red winner from Addison, N.Y., to stick with the leader, Berdan.

"I knew basically it was him and me," Morseman said. "But I knew he was going to have more wheels than I had. I tried to stay with him as much as I could for as long as I could. Especially on the downhills because I knew that was going to be to my advantage if I was going to do anything and be competitive to win."

A bridge closure in Analomink forced race officials to draw up a new route. This year's marathon began at Pocono Raceway, turned South on Route 115, to Toll Road and turned on to Effort-Neola Road.

The marathon crossed Route 33 near the Monroe County Correctional Facility at Manor Drive and then Hickory Valley Road. The 26.2-mile course finished on Dreher Avenue and onto Stroudsburg High School's campus.

The frontrunners said the biggest challenge was the declines. The first five-to-eight miles were the toughest for Berdan.

"There were a lot of steep dowhills," Berdan said. "It was really steep so later your quads aren't functioning to go uphill."

After gaining the lead only to have Morseman reel him back in, Berdan finally pulled away around the midway point. The two runners talked off and on for the first eight miles, mostly complaining about a slight head wind.

By the halfway point Berdan led by just over a minute and never looked back. Morseman told Berdan at one point to go.

"He won the Delaware Marathon last weekend so he's kind of beat up from that," Berdan said. "He was happy with getting second."

Waiting at the finish was Berdan's wife, Amanda, and two sons, Evan, 4, and Colin 2.